Encyclopedia
Thomas Carlyle was a
Scottish essayist, satirist, and historian, whose work was hugely influential during the
Victorian era. Coming from a strictly
Calvinist family, Carlyle was expected by his parents to become a preacher. However, while at the
University of Edinburgh he lost his Christian faith. Nevertheless Calvinist values remained with him throughout his life. This combination of a religious temperament with loss of faith in traditional Christianity made Carlyle's work appealing to many Victorians who were grappling with scientific and political changes that threatened the traditional social order.
Early life and influences
Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan,
Dumfries and Galloway, and was educated at Annan Academy, Annan. He was powerfully influenced by his family's strong
Calvinism. After attending the
University of Edinburgh, Carlyle became a
mathematics teacher, first in Annan and then in
Kirkcaldy, where Carlyle became close friends with the mystic Edward Irving. In 1819 - 1821, Carlyle went back to the University of Edinburgh, where he suffered an intense crisis of faith and conversion that would provide the material for
Sartor Resartus. He also began reading deeply in German literature. Carlyle's thinking was heavily influenced by German Transcendentalism, in particular the work of
Fichte. He established himself as an expert on German literature in a series of essays for
Frazer's Magazine, and by translating German writers, notably
Goethe.
Writings
Early writings
His first major work,
Sartor Resartus was intended to be a new kind of book: simultaneously factual and fictional, serious and satirical, speculative and historical. It ironically commented on its own formal structure, while forcing the reader to confront the problem of where 'truth' is to be found. The narrator finds contempt for all things in human society and life. He contemplates the "Everlasting No" of refusal, comes to the "Centre of Indifference," and eventually embraces the "Everlasting Yea." This voyage from denial to disengagement to volition would later be described as part of the existentialist awakening. Carlyle establishes that the bases for common belief and faith are empty, that men are locked into hollow forms and satiated by vacuous pleasures and certainties. His narrator rebels against the smugness of his age and the positive claims of authority. He eventually finds that rage cannot provide a meaning for life, that he cannot answer the eternal question by merely rejecting all answers. He eventually comes to see that the matters of faith to common life can be valid, if they are informed by the soul's passions and the individual affirmation. He seeks a new world where religion has a new form, where the essential truths once revolutionary and undeniable are again made new.
Sartor Resartus was initially considered bizarre and incomprehensible, but had a limited success in
America, where it was admired by
Ralph Waldo Emerson, influencing the development of New England Transcendentalism.
In 1834, Carlyle moved to London and began to move among celebrated company, thanks to the fame of
Sartor Resartus. Within the
United Kingdom Carlyle's success was assured by the publication of his two volume work
The French Revolution, A History in 1837. After the completed manuscript of the book was accidentally burned by the philosopher
John Stuart Mill's maid, Carlyle had to begin again from scratch. The resulting second version was filled with a passionate intensity, hitherto unknown in historical writing. In a politically charged Europe, filled with fears and hopes of revolution, Carlyle's account of the motivations and urges that inspired the events in France seemed powerfully relevant. Carlyle's style of writing emphasised this, continually stressing the immediacy of the action – often using the present tense. For Carlyle, chaotic events demanded what he called 'heroes' to take control over the competing forces erupting within society. While not denying the importance of economic and practical explanations for events, he saw these forces as essentially 'spiritual' in character – the hopes and aspirations of people that took the form of ideas, and were often ossified into ideologies . In Carlyle's view only dynamic individuals could master events and direct these spiritual energies effectively. As soon as ideological 'formulas' replaced heroic human action society became dehumanised.
This dehumanisation of society was a theme pursued in later books. In
Past and Present , Carlyle sounded a note of conservative scepticism that could later be seen in
Matthew Arnold and
John Ruskin: he compared the lives of the dissipated 19th century man and a medieval abbot. For Carlyle the monastic community was unified by human and spiritual values, while modern culture deified impersonal economic forces and abstract theories of human 'rights' and natural 'laws'. Communal values were collapsing into isolated individualism and ruthless laissez-faire
Capitalism, justified by what he called the "dismal science" of
economics.
Heroes and hero worship
These ideas were influential on the development of
Socialism, but aspects of Carlyle's thinking in his later years also helped to form
Fascism. Carlyle moved towards his later thinking during the 1840s, leading to a break with many old friends and allies such as Mill and, to a lesser extent, Emerson. His belief in the importance of heroic leadership found form in his book "Heroes and Hero Worship", in which he compared different types of heroes. For Carlyle the hero was somewhat similar to
Aristotle's "Magnanimous" man — a person who flourished in the fullest sense. However, for Carlyle, unlike Aristotle, the world was filled with contradictions with which the hero had to deal. All heroes will be flawed. Their heroism lay in their creative energy in the face of these difficulties, not in their moral perfection. To sneer at such a person for their failings is the philosophy of those who seek comfort in the conventional. Carlyle called this 'valetism', from the expression 'no man is a hero to his valet'.
All these books were influential in their day, especially on writers such as
Charles Dickens and
John Ruskin. However, after the Revolutions of 1848 and political agitations in the United Kingdom, Carlyle published a collection of essays entitled "
Latter-Day Pamphlets" in which he attacked democracy as an absurd social ideal, while equally condemning hereditary aristocratic leadership. The latter was deadening, the former nonsensical: as though truth could be discovered by toting up votes. Government should come from the ablest. But how we were to recognise the ablest, and to follow their lead, was something Carlyle could not clearly say.
In later writings Carlyle sought to examine instances of heroic leadership in history. The "Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell" presented a positive image of
Cromwell: someone who attempted to weld order from the conflicting forces of reform in his own day. Carlyle sought to make Cromwell's words live in their own terms by quoting him directly, and then commenting on the significance of these words in the troubled context of the time. Again this was intended to make the 'past' 'present' to his readers.
The Everlasting Yea and No
The Everlasting Yea is Carlyle's name for the spirit of faith in God in an express attitude of clear, resolute, steady, and uncompromising antagonism to the
Everlasting No, and the principle that there is no such thing as faith in God except in such antagonism against the spirit opposed to God.
The Everlasting No is Carlyle's name for the spirit of unbelief in God, especially as it manifested itself in his own, or rather
Teufelsdröckh's, warfare against it; the spirit, which, as embodied in the
Mephistopheles of
Goethe, is for ever denying,—
der stets verneint—the reality of the divine in the thoughts, the character, and the life of humanity, and has a malicious pleasure in scoffing at everything high and noble as hollow and void.
In
Sartor Resartus, the narrator moves from the "Everlasting No" to the "Everlasting Yea," but only through "The Center of Indifference," which is a position not merely of agnosticism, but also of detatchment. Only after reducing desires and certainty and aiming at a
Buddha-like "indifference" can the narrator move toward an affirmation. In some ways, this is similar to the contemporary philosopher
Soren Kierkegaard's "leap of faith" in
Concluding Unscientific Postscript.In regards to the abovementioned "antagonism," one might note that
William Blake famously wrote that "without contraries is no progression," and Carlyle's progress from the everlasting nay to the everlasting yea was not to be found in the "Centre of Indifference" but in Natural Supernaturalism, a Transcendental philosophy of the divine within the everyday.
Worship of Silence and Sorrow
Based on Goethe calling
Christianity the "Worship of Sorrow", and "our highest religion, for the Son of Man", Carlyle adds, interpreting this, "there is no noble crown, well worn or even ill worn, but is a crown of thorns".
The "Worship of Silence" is Carlyle's name for the sacred respect for restraint in speech till "thought has silently matured itself, …to hold one's tongue till some meaning lie behind to set it wagging," a doctrine which many misunderstand, almost wilfully, it would seem; silence being to him the very womb out of which all great things are born.
Later work
His last major work was the epic life of
Frederick the Great . In this Carlyle tried to show how an heroic leader can forge a state, and help create a new moral culture for a nation. For Carlyle, Frederick epitomised the transition from the liberal
Enlightenment ideals of the eighteenth century to a new modern culture of spiritual dynamism: embodied by Germany, its thought and its polity. The book is most famous for its vivid portrayal of Frederick's battles, in which Carlyle communicated his vision of almost overwhelming chaos mastered by leadership of genius. However, the effort involved in the writing of the book took its toll on Carlyle, who became increasingly depressed, and subject to various probably psychosomatic ailments. Its mixed reception also contributed to Carlyle's decreased literary output.
Later writings were generally short essays, often indicating the hardening of Carlyle's political position. His notoriously
racist essay "An Occasional Discourse on the
Nigger Question" suggested that slavery should never have been abolished. It had kept order, and forced work from people who would otherwise have been lazy and feckless. This – and Carlyle's support for the repressive measures of Governor
Edward Eyre in Jamaica – further alienated him from his old liberal allies. Eyre had been accused of brutal lynchings while suppressing a rebellion. Carlyle set up a committee to defend Eyre, while Mill organised for his prosecution.
Private life
Carlyle has a number of would-be romances before he married Jane Welsh. The most notable were with Margaret Gordon, a pupil of his friend Edward Irving. Even after he met Jane, he became enamoured of Kitty Kirkpatrick, the daughter of a British officer and an Indian princess.
William Dalrymple, author of
White Mughals, suggests that feelings were mutual, but social circumstances made the marriage impossible, as Carlyle was then poor. Both Margaret and Kitty have been suggested as the original of "Blumine", Teufelsdröch's beloved, in
Sartor Resartus.
Carlyle married Jane Welsh in 1826, but the marriage was quite unhappy. The letters between Carlyle and his wife have been published, and they show that the couple had an affection for one another that was marred by frequent quarrels. There was a sexual incident that is the cause of much speculation by biographers. Whether this was a case of impotence or psychosexual neurosis, no one can be sure, but the couple was apparently celibate.
Carlyle became increasingly alienated from his wife. Although she had been an invalid for some time, her death came unexpectedly and plunged him into despair, during which he wrote his highly self-critical "Reminiscences of Jane Welsh Carlyle". This was published after his death by his biographer
James Anthony Froude, who also made public his belief that the marriage was unconsummated. This frankness was unheard of in the usually respectful biographies of the period. Froude's views were attacked by Carlyle's family, especially his nephew, Alexander Carlyle. However, the biography in question was consistent with Carlyle's own conviction that the flaws of heroes should be openly discussed, without diminishing their achievements. Froude, who had been designated by Carlyle himself as his biographer-to-be, was acutely aware of this belief.
After Jane Carlyle's death in 1866, Thomas Carlyle partly retired from active society. He was appointed rector of the University of Edinburgh.
appeared in 1875.
Upon Carlyle's death on February 5, 1881 in
London, it was made possible for his remains to be interred in
Westminster Abbey, but his wish to be buried beside his parents in Ecclefechan was respected.
Influence
Thomas Carlyle is notable both for his continuation of older traditions of the
Tory satirists of the 18th century in
England and for forging a new tradition of
Victorian era criticism of progress.
Sartor Resartus can be seen both as an extension of the chaotic, sceptical satires of
Jonathan Swift and
Laurence Sterne and as an annunciation of a new point of view on values. Finding the world hollow, Carlyle's misanthropist professor-narrator discovers a need for revolution of the spirit. In one sense, this resolution is in keeping with the
Romantic era's belief in revolution, individualism, and passion, but in another sense it is a nihilistic and private solution to the problems of modern life that makes no gesture of outreach to a wider community.
Later British critics, such as Matthew Arnold, would similarly denounce the mob and the naïve claims of progress, and others, such as John Ruskin, would reject the era's incessant move toward industrial production. However, few would follow Carlyle into a narrow and solitary resolution, and even those who would come to praise heroes would not be as remorseless for the weak.
Carlyle is also important for helping to introduce German Romantic literature to Britain. Although
Samuel Taylor Coleridge had also been a proponent of
Schiller, Carlyle's efforts on behalf of Schiller and Goethe would bear fruit.
Carlyle also made a favourable impression on some slaveholders in the U.S. South. His conservatism and criticisms of capitalism were enthusiastically repeated by those anxious to defend slavery as an alternative to capitalism, such as George Fitzhugh.
The reputation of Carlyle's early work remained high during the
19th century, but declined in the
20th century. His reputation in
Germany was always high, because of his promotion of German thought and his biography of Frederick the Great.
Friedrich Nietzsche, whose ideas are comparable to Carlyle's in some respects, was dismissive of his moralism, calling him an "insipid muddlehead" in
Beyond Good and Evil is a major 19th century [i] philosophic ...
and regarded him as a thinker who failed to free himself from the very petty-mindedness he professed to condemn. Carlyle's distaste for democracy and his belief in charismatic leadership was unsurprisingly appealing to
Adolf Hitler, who was reading Carlyle's biography of Frederick during his last days in 1945.
This association with fascism did Carlyle's reputation no good in the post-war years, but "Sartor Resartus" has recently been recognised once more as a unique masterpiece, anticipating many major philosophical and cultural developments, from Existentialism to Postmodernism. It has also been argued that his critique of ideological formulas in "The French Revolution" provides a good account of the ways in which revolutionary cultures turn into repressive dogmatisms. Essentially a
Romantic thinker, Carlyle attempted to reconcile Romantic affirmations of feeling and freedom with respect for historical and political fact. Nevertheless, he was always more attracted to the idea of heroic struggle itself, than to any specific goal for which the struggle was being made.
Works
- Signs of the Times
- Sartor Resartus
-
- On Heroes And Hero Worship And The Heroic In History
- Past and Present
- Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell
- An Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question
- Latter-Day Pamphlets
- The Life Of John Sterling
- History of Friedrich II of Prussia
Definitions
Carlyle had quite a few unusual definitions at hand, which were collected by the Nuttall Encyclopedia. Some include:
;
Centre of Immensities:an expression of Carlyle's to signify that wherever any one is, he is in touch with the whole universe of being, and is, if he knew it, as near the heart of it there as anywhere else he can be.
;
Eleutheromania: A mania or frantic zeal for freedom.
;
Gigman:Carlyle's name for a man who prides himself on, and pays all respect to, respectability. It is derived from a definition once given in a court of justice by a witness who, having described a person as respectable, was asked by the judge in the case what he meant by the word; "one that keeps a gig," was the answer. Carlyle also refers to "gigmanity" at large.
;
Hallowed Fire:an expression of Carlyle's in definition of Christianity "at its rise and spread" as sacred, and kindling what was sacred and divine in man's soul, and burning up all that was not.
;
Mights And Rights:the Carlyle doctrine that Rights are nothing till they have realised and established themselves as Mights; they
are rights first only then.
;
Pig-Philosophy:the name given by Carlyle in his
Latter-Day Pamphlets, in the one on Jesuitism, to the wide-spread philosophy of the time, which regarded the human being as a mere creature of appetite instead of a creature of God endowed with a soul, as having no nobler idea of well-being than the gratification of desire--that his only Heaven, and the reverse of it his Hell.
;
Plugston of Undershot:Carlyle's name for member of the manufacturing class
;
Present Time:defined by Carlyle as "the youngest born of Eternity, child and heir of all the past times, with their good and evil, and parent of all the future with new questions and significance," on the right or wrong understanding of which depend the issues of life or death to us all, the sphinx riddle given to all of us to rede as we would live and not die.
;
Prinzenraub:, name given to an attempt, to satisfy a private grudge of his, on the part of Kunz von Kaufingen to carry off, on the night of the 7th July 1455, two Saxon princes from the castle of Altenburg, in which he was defeated by apprehension at the hands of a collier named Schmidt, through whom he was handed over to justice and beheaded. See Carlyle's account of this in his "Miscellanies."
;
Printed Paper:Carlyle's satirical name for the literature of France prior to the Revolution.
;
Progress of the Species Magazines: Carlyle's name for the literature of the day which does nothing to help the progress in question, but keeps idly boasting of the fact, taking all the credit to itself, like Æsop's fly on the axle of the careering chariot soliloquising, "What a dust I raise!"
;
The Conflux of Eternities:Carlyle's expressive phrase for
time, as in every moment of it a centre in which all the forces to and from eternity meet and unite, so that by no past and no future can we be brought nearer to Eternity than where we at any moment of Time are; the Present Time, the youngest born of Eternity, being the child and heir of all the Past times with their good and evil, and the parent of all the Future, the import of which it is accordingly the first and most sacred duty of every successive age, and especially the leaders of it, to know and lay to heart as the only link by which Eternity lays hold of it and it of Eternity.
Notes
See also
External links
- Project Gutenberg text of by John Nichol
